Tsitsipas – Djokovic: Stefanos wants to expel his curse against Nole

Stefanos Tsitsipas will compete in the final of the Astana Open on Sunday afternoon (September 10, 1:30 p.m., COSMOTE SPORT 6 HD, live from Sportish) and meet Novak Djokovic there.

The world No. 6 will have a difficult task as Nole is in excellent shape and looking to overcome it after the tournament in Tel Aviv.

Recommendations for Novak Djokovic are of course unnecessary. The unvaccinated restrictions may have dropped him to No. 7 in the world rankings and lost many points from tournaments he missed, but he remains a great athlete.

He wants to end Djokovic’s streak

Stefanos Tsitsipas and Novak Djokovic face off for the tenth time, with the Greek tennis player counting two wins and the legendary Serbian seven.

The point is that the Greek tennis player’s last win was in Shanghai in 2019, and then six straight wins followed from Nole of Paris to the final in Rome last May.

Of their nine games, four are in the final, the longest of them all being that of Roland Garros in 2021, with Djokovic having the ultimate.

The curse on the 500s

This is Stefanos Tsitsipas’ 23rd time in an ATP Finals tournament and he is trying to break the curse of losing 500 finals.

So far, Steph has played eight finals at this level and suffered just as many defeats. Of course, he had to face in all major opponents. In fact, Tsitsipas was defeated by Nadal (Barcelona twice), Federer (Dubai), Thiem (Beijing), Djokovic (Dubai) and Rublev (Hamburg), Zverev (Acapulco) and Felix Auxerre Aliasim (Rotterdam).

He is now looking to claim his first ATP 500 title while also celebrating his third title of 2022 and his first since the one in Mallorca last June.

If he can do that, he will achieve something terrible, because in one season he has won a title on all surfaces.